Roar

No matter how wildly Sukuna's curse battered him, it could not budge him an inch!

Instead, the furnace-hot blood coursing through his body burned it, drawing scream after scream!

"What kind of monster is this?! How could anyone have a body like this?!"

Sukuna's remnant soul roared in terror.

Quiet down, you little piece of trash.

Yagami Jue issued the command in his mind.

System, recycle it now!

[Ding!]

[Successfully recycled special grade cursed object: Ryomen Sukuna's Finger (2/20)!]

[Received: 50 million yen!]

[Host's current account balance: 52.5 million yen!]

(Including the money from killing cursed spirits earlier.)

As the system notification chimed.

The Sukuna's Finger in Yagami Jue's hand dissolved into specks of black light and vanished completely into the air.

"It disappeared?!"

Watching this unfold, Megumi Fushiguro was so shocked his jaw nearly hit the floor.

A person with no cursed energy had actually squeezed a special grade cursed object out of existence with his bare hand?!

How was that possible?!

That was something even Satoru Gojo could not destroy!

"Hey! Yagami! Where the hell did you put that thing?!"

Yuji Itadori ran over, looking just as baffled.

"Mind your own business."

Yagami Jue gave him a cold glance.

Now that he had his money, he had no more business here.

There were still plenty of cursed spirits outside, and every last one was cold, hard cash!

Just as Yagami Jue turned to leave and continue his slaughter outside.

BOOM!!!

An earth-shaking crash suddenly erupted from the school building's roof!

Immediately afterward.

Under the pressure of some terrifying force, the ceiling over the entire fourth-floor corridor collapsed in an instant!

Chunks of concrete and steel rebar rained down!

"Watch out!"

Yuji Itadori reacted with lightning speed, tackling Megumi Fushiguro to the floor and barely saving them from being crushed into pulp.

The dust cleared.

Amid the rubble in the center of the corridor.

A terrifying cursed spirit appeared, standing three meters tall, covered in black scales, with limbs as thick as pillars!

It had a gaping, crocodile-like maw that dripped corrosive green slime.

And the waves of cursed energy radiating from its body.

Were more than ten times as terrifying as those of the semi-grade 1 cursed spirit from earlier!

Special grade!

Though it was only a newly born, incomplete special grade.

It was still far beyond anything the current Jujutsu High students could handle!

"A... a special grade cursed spirit?!"

Megumi Fushiguro climbed off the floor. At the sight of that monster radiating despair, his face instantly turned white as a sheet.

"Why... why is there a special grade here?!"

"Did the presence of Sukuna's Finger wake it from its slumber?!"

Megumi Fushiguro's heart sank.

We're finished.

Against a special grade cursed spirit, none of them even had a chance to escape!

"Itadori! Take those two and run! I'll hold it off!"

Megumi Fushiguro bit his finger, preparing to forcibly summon the strongest shikigami, Mahoraga. Even if it meant mutual destruction, he would protect the civilians!

"ROAR-!!!"

The Crocodile Special Grade Cursed Spirit unleashed a deafening roar that shattered every pane of glass in the corridor!

It abruptly turned its head, its scarlet eyes locking onto Yagami Jue!

Because it could sense it.

The human before it had just crushed the Sukuna's Finger it craved most!

"A special grade, huh..."

Faced with that mountainous, terrifying pressure.

Yagami Jue did not feel the slightest fear.

Instead, he was so excited that every bone in his body crackled and popped!

"Hahahaha! Finally, something that can put up a fight!"

Fanatical battle lust gleamed in Yagami Jue's eyes.

Ignoring Megumi Fushiguro's warning entirely, he strode toward the special grade cursed spirit.

"Hey! Are you insane?! That's a special grade!"

Megumi Fushiguro shouted desperately.

But Yagami Jue paid him no attention.

He frantically issued commands in his mind!

System!

Take all 52.5 million yen in my account!

And put it all into strength!

[Ding!]

[Successfully deducted 52.5 million yen!]

[Strength +5,250! Current strength: 6,610!]

BOOM-!!!!!

In that very instant.

Yagami Jue's body underwent a terrifying, earth-shattering transformation!

His muscles did not bulge grotesquely like a bodybuilder's. Instead, they grew tighter and more compact!

But beneath that seemingly ordinary skin.

Lay supreme strength capable of tearing space apart!

6,610 points of strength!

If he could previously rip an armored vehicle apart with his bare hands.

Then now.

Even a hundred-meter-tall skyscraper could be leveled with a single punch!

The air around him could not withstand the pressure of that terrifying power.

It actually began to crackle and pop, and even space visibly warped!

"Die!"

The Crocodile Special Grade Cursed Spirit roared, swinging its massive, scale-covered claw down at Yagami Jue!

That strike carried black cursed energy concentrated to the extreme.

It was enough to flatten a heavy tank into a metal pancake!

"That's it?"

An utterly arrogant sneer curled Yagami Jue's lips.

Rather than retreating, he advanced.

He stamped his right foot hard against the floor!

BOOM!!!

His stomp punched a massive hole straight through the sturdy school floors, all the way down to the first floor!

Propelled by that terrifying recoil.

Yagami Jue shot toward the Crocodile Special Grade Cursed Spirit like a meteor streaking upward, reaching it in an instant!

"This punch cost me over sixty million!"

"Think you can take it?!"

Yagami Jue roared, his right fist becoming a blur that broke the sound barrier and even sparked from friction.

It slammed squarely into the crocodile cursed spirit's chest!

BANG-!!!!!!

Words could not describe the terror of that punch!

At the instant of contact.

The Crocodile Special Grade Cursed Spirit's black scales, tough enough to withstand armor-piercing shells, shattered piece by piece like fragile glass!

Immediately afterward.

All 6,610 points of his overwhelming strength poured into its body without restraint!

SPLURT!

A hole over a meter wide was blasted straight through its chest!

But that was not the end!

That terrifying kinetic energy, carrying utterly devastating destructive force.

Blasted the Crocodile Special Grade Cursed Spirit's enormous body off the ground!

RUMBLE!

The cursed spirit's massive body was like a cannonball fired from a cannon.

It smashed through several walls of the school building in an instant!

Finally, it crashed into the athletic field a hundred meters away, blasting a crater more than ten meters deep into the ground!

All of Sugisawa High School shook violently under that terrifying blow!

It was as though a magnitude-eight earthquake had struck!

One punch!

Just one punch!

An incomplete special grade cursed spirit had been killed instantly!

Killed without so much as a scrap left!

In the corridor.

There was deathly silence.

Megumi Fushiguro remained frozen in his hand-seal stance, staring blankly at the enormous body-shaped hole in the wall as though he had turned to stone.

His mind was utterly blank.

"One punch... instantly killed a special grade?!"

"You've got to be kidding..."

"Even Mr. Gojo... couldn't do anything like that without using his cursed technique, could he?!"

Yuji Itadori was so frightened that he dropped onto his backside.

He stared at the lean figure a short distance away, whose back was turned to him as he slowly withdrew his fist.

Cold sweat had already soaked his back.

Was this really the same damn Yagami who slept through class?!

He was a walking nuclear bomb!

[Ding! Killed an incomplete special grade cursed spirit above your level!]

[Loot dropped: 20 million yen!]

[Special item dropped: Top-tier Taijutsu Fragment-Eight Gates Formation (First Gate: Gate of Opening)!]

As he listened to the system notifications in his mind.

Yagami Jue's clenched fists trembled slightly.

Not from fear.

But from sheer excitement!

Eight Gates Formation!

It finally dropped!

Even if it was only the first gate.